Tuesday, August 21, 2012

37.5 weeks

We're officially in the home stretch. Full term...big belly full of baby just waiting to be born. Oh...and did I mention...ROWAN TURNED!

I'm not quite sure what the 'magic' solution was for him, but he sure enough did rotate. On Wednesday, the day after the external version, I was feeling a lot of movements, and some of them felt a little different-maybe different body parts or different location...just...different. My cousin, who is a chiropractor in MN, suggested I do some research on the Webster technique that some chiropractors are certified in. From what I learned, it's a way to make sure your sacrum is in alignment and your round ligaments are stretched out to prevent twisting of the lower part of my uterus to make sure Rowan had the maximum amount of room possible to rotate. I figured it wouldn't be a bad thing for me to be checked out by a chiropractor anyway, so I made an appointment for Thursday to be seen.

Thursday it was more of the same movements. When I would stand up, I couldn't find Rowan's head. If I laid down, I could feel something that might have been a head, but it was further 'in' so it was hard for someone like me to tell-considering I have never had a baby this big inside of me before OR poked around on a friend's belly who had a baby in it. I went to the chiropractor and they did an adjustment. They discovered I had a lot of inflammation in my low back-though I can't say I was surprised considering I have a bowling ball on the front of my stomach =)

On Thursday night I went to scrimmage practice and asked a friend who is an OB to see if she could tell where Rowan was at. I explained how where his head had been was feeling a bit more "squishy" so I wasn't sure if he had started to make his decent (slowly) or if he had flipped. She did a quick check of the tummy and said confidently that the head was down. Praise God!

Over the weekend I tried my best to just stay relaxed and not think about the fact his head was down. I went for a couple of walks, did some house cleaning (not a lot-I don't think I'm 'nesting' yet), and just spend some quality time with Ian. It was a wonderful weekend.

Yesterday morning we went back to our doctor. She asked if he had turned and looked soooooo surprised when we said we believed he had. She did a quick exam and sure enough...he was still head down. She cancelled the C-Section...and now...we wait.

I am so relieved that Rowan got into the right position. I feel a little silly getting as worked up as I did about it. But...there's no way to know why he flipped. Maybe he would have flipped on his own without any intervention from me. Maybe he just needed some directions from the version. Maybe he needed a little more space that the chiropractor's adjustments and stretching gave him. Maybe God wanted to remind me that I really do have ZERO control over this child right now and had to ask me to fully trust in Him. I have no idea...and really it doesn't matter. All I know is that we have a healthy baby who is doing what he's supposed to be doing. And now...we wait.

We wait for when he decides he needs to be born. I get to enjoy these last few weeks of time with my husband where it's just the two of us. I get to relax knowing that I've done everything I can to prepare my mind and body for childbirth and now I just have to trust everything will be perfect in the end. I get to have peace knowing that as much as I can try to control the situation, I have no control. I get experience the peace of knowing that God's love is big enough to take care of my whole family. That is an amazing feeling to wake up with each day. For that I am truly thankful.